


Sharp End of a Storm

by Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat)



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Beorn calls Bilbo Little Bunny, Bilbo is Company, Bofur is awesome, Dwalin didn't know, Everybody Lives, F/M, Gen, If certain people survive the girls' anger, M/M, Sigrid has plenty to say, There may be adult situations, Thorin Is an Idiot, but he's our idiot, more tags to be added later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 03:10:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7741054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/pseuds/Eternal%20Scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein Sigrid is riled up, Tauriel is furious, Fili and Kili are confused, Bard is amused, Thranduil is bemused, Bain and Tilda are lost and Thorin is abused.</p>
<p>Or--</p>
<p>Sigrid and Tauriel are beyond pissed off at how easily Thorin seemed to dismiss the lives of Fili and Kili and have plenty to say about it. The Company and Bilbo decide quite wisely that this is one confrontation Thorin has to deal with on his own and Nori and Dwalin may set up a betting pool.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Eyes That See, The Hands That Touch

It started when the large bear bore two bodies into the healing tent that she was running. No one commented on her age or how young she might look. It was a war and in war things like ages didn’t generally seem to matter. It also helped that she knew a great deal about medicine and binding wounds. She was the oldest daughter of a single father with two siblings. One learned quickly in the life they led.

Of course, all of that learning was not exactly practice for a dragon, losing her entire world, having her father kill the dragon and being named the leader of their land.

Sigrid of Dale looked up when someone entered her tent and something tightened in her chest when she saw it was a very, very large bear. However, she didn’t have time to worry about that when she noticed two blood covered bodies draped across his back -- and the appearance of a very familiar red-headed elf entering the tent behind him.

“No.” She felt her hands tighten at her sides as she took in the tears and blood streaks on Tauriel’s face before she looked back at the bodies draped across the bear. “Eru, oh Eru, no.”

Tauriel came to her side, walking a little stiffly. Her eyes were full of tears as she directed her new friend to help her remove the two dwarves off of the great bear and onto the two cots that had just been set up before their arrival.

“Beorn found Kili and I,” Tauriel whispered as they worked. “Bolg the great orc had just stabbed some kind of metal weapon through his chest. We searched together until we found Fili…” Tauriel swallowed, trying to regain her usual composure, but Sigrid could see how much she was struggling. “Fili… we found him and Beorn insisted that he be born here with his brother. I don’t know how they got the strength when they are already on the pathway to the halls of their maker, but as soon as they were together, they clasped hands and will not be parted.”

Sigrid nodded in understanding. “They are brothers and very close. I can’t imagine that one will stay if the other dies. Fili --” Here her own voice broke for a moment before she managed to get herself talking again. “Fili loves his younger brother like no one else. He would die for Kili if it would save him. Much like I would trade my life to keep Bain and Tilda safe.”

Tauriel nodded as they pushed the cots a little closer so that the men on them wouldn’t have their arms stretched so far apart. As Sigrid helped cut their clothing off of them to see to their wounds, she felt the tears burning hotter and hotter. She fought to keep them from sliding down her cheeks, but it was hard. Seeing these two like this tore at her and made her anger at their uncle burn fiercer than it already had been.

_Thorin had caused this. Thorin had led his own kin into their deaths._

There was a rustling from behind them and Sigrid turned to see a very tall man standing in the tent where she had been sure the bear had been just a few moments ago. He was looking down at the two brothers and there was a sadness in his eyes that Sigrid was sure must have matched how she was feeling.

“I like these dwarves,” he rumbled. “They have good hearts. They care and are not full of greed like others I have met.”

“You know Fili and Kili?” Sigrid asked softly, even as she was looking the man over for wounds that might need to be tended. There was large patches of blood on his skin, but she couldn’t tell if they were his wounds or something else.

“Aye. They are companions of Gandalf and the Little Bunny Bilbo.”

Sigrid managed a smile to hear him refer to the Halfling she had met as a bunny. “Are you injured, sir? I can help you with any wounds you may have.”

“Beorn,” the large man said. “I am no sir. Just Beorn. My wounds are not bad, little one. Take care of them. Please. I need to return to the battlefield to try to locate the bunny. I will return.”

Before Sigrid could even blink, the man left the tent. Swallowing, Sigrid turned back to the two dwarves that had been brought to her. She brought over a large basin of water and a pile of rags and without speaking much, she and Tauriel began the long process of cleaning the blood away from the bodies of the two she had hoped to count as close companions in order to see just how bad their wounds were.

“I have used some of my magic to keep Kili attached to his body, but I do not know if I have saved him.”

Sigrid gave Tauriel a sad smile. “We will do our best and not let Death and the Valar take them too easily, my friend. We will fight for them as no one else seems to have.”

She was rewarded with a smile from the elf maiden and then both of them had to force themselves to breathe as the slowly the grievous wounds done to the brothers were revealed.

They certainly had their work cut out for them.

 

What seemed like hours later, there was another commotion at the entrance of Sigrid’s tent and she sat up from where she had been laying with her head on Fili’s cot in exhaustion. When she saw the dwarf being held in the arms of the tattooed dwarf, she felt herself shaking her head. This was too much. She could not do this, not right now.

“No. Take him to the tent next door.”

“Lady Sigrid?” Oin gave her a confused look through the tangles of his hair and beard. He knew her for a young woman with a strong heart and couldn’t fathom what had her so willing to turn away someone in need like his wounded king.

“I will follow but he will not lay here. Not with them. Not with the ones he was so quick to leave behind and then to lead to their deaths.” Her voice was full of an anger that in the short time the dwarves had known her she had never shown to them.

It was then that Dwalin and Oin saw the two princes on the cots and the red-headed elf that was standing guard at their side.

“They live?”

Tauriel nodded, but it was Sigrid who answered. “At this moment, they do. Beorn brought them to me. I do not know how long they may be with us but I will not have Thorin in this tent with them. Not when he is the cause of this.”

“Lass,” Dwalin tried to gentle his voice. He recognized the look in her eyes because he had seen it far too many times in his life after numerous battles. Sigrid was keeping herself together with a strong sense of her own willpower alone and she looked haunted. Had he and their people truly caused such a change to be in one so young? “Thorin may not last the night, lass. He would want to be able to say goodbye to those that he loves.”

“Mister Dwalin, I like you and my sister seemed to think that you were very amazing, but do not talk to me of Thorin’s love. He left his nephews behind in Lake Town because he couldn’t wait to get to his blasted treasure -- even though one was wounded and near death. He caused a dragon to destroy the world I knew. He lied to my father and would not offer us aid to get through the night when our people barely had the strength to make it to Dale. I have seen my young brother forced to take up a sword to defend my sister and I from creatures out of nightmares and then I spent the last several hours wondering how many more of my people would die in this war even while Tauriel and I were cleaning the blood from Fili and Kili and doing our best to stitch up wounds and try to make them more comfortable. Do not speak to me of Thorin’s love when all I see from him right now are two broken bodies that keep paying the price for being his nephews.”

Fili made a sound of distress and Sigrid was immediately at his side. “Sssh. Hush, Fili. You need to rest.”

Fili didn’t wake up, didn’t seem to hear her words, but called again for his brother.

That was when Dwalin and Oin saw that Fili and Kili’s hands were linked between the cots they were laying in.

“He is here, with you.” Tauriel’s voice was gentle as she leaned down to speak to Fili. “I kept him from dying on you once before and I will fight to save him again.” She murmured something in the musical language of the elves and Fili went quiet again.

“What do you mean that he was near death,” Dwalin asked as he let Oin and now Balin take Thorin from his arms and set him up in the tent next to the one they were all standing in. He could hear them talking next door, but his attention was focused on Kili.

“Oh, now you care?” 

“I hae always cared about these boys, lass. I helped raise them and train them when they lost their father to orcs.”

Sigrid took a deep breath. Dwalin did not deserve her anger and she tried to keep her voice level. “Kili wasn’t just sick when you left him behind. He was _dying_. The arrow wound in his leg was poisoning the rest of his body. It was why he was so weak and no amount of tending that Oin did to him was working. Fili, Bofur and Oin were just about carrying him when they made it back to our home. At great risk to us, my father brought them back into our home and we tried to help tend to him. Fili never left his side and I was sure that if we lost his brother, Fili would be lost as well.” She locked eyes with Dwalin. “If Tauriel had not arrived when she had with her friend, Kili would have died. The muscles in his leg were already separated from the bone.”

Dwalin went a little more pale and then looked to where Tauriel was still standing at the cots like she was shielding them. “You… an elf saved a dwarf? But why?” 

That question needed to be answered but he was shaken because he hadn’t realized that Kili had been _dying_ of his wound. It had only been an arrow to the leg. Dwarves took wounds like that every day. None of them had realized that Kili’s injury was anything but an injury that might have been affecting him worse due to the lack of real food and rest. He liked to think that the information would have changed things if they had all known, but there was the worry that Thorin was already being affected by the dragon sickness and the madness that traveled down his family line.

Tauriel frowned at him, but for Kili and his brother, she tried to put her reasoning into words. “Because I saw his heart and his spirit even when we were in Mirkwood. He was open and caring and did not have the hate and anger that the rest of your group had towards us. Even though I put him in a cell, he was still kind to me. When the group of you escaped and were trapped at the gate, he never even faltered in his determination to save the rest of you. Even when he was shot and had to be in pain from the black poison, he still made himself move for that lever. When the orc we captured told my king that he would be dead soon because of the poison on the arrow, my honor would not let me do nothing. I could not repay kindness and light with a painful death.”

“And why are you here, now? Your king wanted to leave our people to die out there.”

“I am here because I followed Kili. I did not want to lose him. When I saw him fighting with the orc, Bolg, I had to help. I could not just let him die… but now I fear I was too late.”

Dwalin was uncomfortable with the way the elf was looking at Kili. It was too private, too personal. He wasn’t sure he liked what he was seeing. The elf maiden was looking at Kili like he was her air and that was not -- “But he’s a dwarf and you are an elf.”

It was Sigrid who replied, looking at Dwalin with far too much emotion in her eyes. “We do not always get to choose who our heart sings for, Mister Dwalin.”

It was then that Dwalin saw something in her eyes that he had never expected to see in the eyes of anyone that wasn’t a dwarf. He’d seen how she kept looking to where Fili was laid out unconscious and how she had been resting with her head next to him when they had entered with Thorin.

 _Mahal_. The golden lion and the midnight raven of Durin had gained the hearts of people that were not of their own race. The Durin heirs were being protected by women that were not dwarfs -- were being protected against their own kind.

There was a sadness that bloomed within Dwalin right then because he couldn’t say for sure that the young ones didn’t need to be protected against their own kind. There was no telling for sure if Thorin would still be completely free from the dragon sickness if he lived.

“They are valued, more than you know, lass,” Dwalin said as gently as he could. He was not usually the one who was faced with these kinds of scenes. He was the fighter, the muscle. His brother was much better at these things than he was. “Thorin… Thorin loves his nephews.”

“Do they know that, mister Dwalin? Do they know they are loved by their uncle, the one who should have thought of them before treasure or do they believe they are merely conveniences for their uncle to keep his family line on a broken throne?” Her eyes were hard. “After all, Kili was dying and his uncle still left him behind in a town of men where he didn’t know anyone and anything could have happened to him if it hadn’t been for the others staying behind with him.”

Dwalin had no answers for those questions and it _bothered_ him that he had no answers to give these women. Because, yes, for all of her youth, he had to admit that Sigrid was indeed a woman. She had been through too much these last days for her to not have grown and aged.

How many lives were Thorin and therefore his friends and followers responsible for altering in so badly of ways?

“Please, lass, do what you can for the boys. Whether they are aware of it or not, they are valued.”

Sigrid watched him turn to go and then called out to him.

“Mister Dwalin…”

He turned back to her in confusion. “Yes, lass?”

“My anger with Thorin is not shared onto you and the rest of your group. My Da said that the day on the walls where Thorin said he would have war over peace that none of the rest of you looked like you were happy with his decision. You were not harsh to us when you came into our home and I would that you don’t think I am angered at all of you.” She sighed. “I just remember how Kili and Fili looked when they were left behind for Kili to die. I remember two dwarves who were devoted to each other and were abandoned by their kin. Family is everything to me and I cannot understand how Thorin could have treated them like they had no value but as fighters.”

“Nay, lass, it should be the rest of us you are angry at, as well. I don’t recall if any of us have thought to make sure those lads realize and remember that they are loved for who they are and not just as two more warriors in a war that should not have started out like it did.” He gave her a sad smile. “I hope that Mahal gives us a chance to rectify our mistakes with the youngsters.”

Before Sigrid could say anything else to him, Dwalin slipped out of the tent to go see to his wounded king.


	2. Answers That Bruise A Heart

True to her word, only a few minutes after Thorin had been set up in his own cot in the tent, Sigrid slipped through the flaps and started working with Oin to tend to the fallen king. Dwalin could tell that even though Sigrid had some issues with Thorin, she wasn’t letting that interfere in what she had taken on as her duty to tend to the wounded. He’d have to ask her and others, but he wanted to request that she only tend to the Durins and not let herself become overly exhausted or stretched thin by trying to take care of everyone and everything.

He owed it to her and to Fili to look after her with all of the care and protection she had taken on when it came to the two princes.

When he saw that Sigrid and Oin were completely focused on taking care of Thorin, Dwalin slipped out of the tent and stood next to where Bofur was guarding the entrance. His eyes took in the two elves that were guarding the tent that his princes lay in and then he let out a heavy sigh and turned to meet Bofur’s eyes.

“Tell me true, Bofur. Did Thorin… did we truly leave Kili behind to die?”

He watched as the other dwarf looked down at his feet for a long moment and then looked up to meet his eyes again.

“I don’t want to disrespect Thorin by speaking of my thoughts on past actions while he is in there fighting for his life.”

“Bofur, answering a direct question is not being disrespectful. I need to know if there was wrong done to one of our own before I can make sure that such things are righted. Thorin would tell you the same.”

Bofur sighed and then nodded. His voice was tired when he finally found the words to speak. “Aye. Kili was dying. You couldn’t have known that, Dwalin. Thorin couldn’t have known it.”

“Don’t, Bofur.” And by the Valar, Dwalin felt so very old all of a sudden. He felt older now than he had ever felt before. “Don’t make excuses for us. He’s kin. He’s a member of the Company. He’s our friend. He’s someone that we owed loyalty and care to. He’s the youngest and we should have repaid all of his loyalty and sacrifice with loyalty and care of our own.”

“You couldn’t have known that the arrow was poisoned with blackness, Dwalin.”

“Maybe not the poison itself, but we still owed him. He took that arrow to his leg because he risked himself to open the gates to get us out of the elven realm. He knew and saw the danger in the actions, and he still put his life before ours to free us.” He ran a hand across his face. “He must have been so angry with us and Fili, too.”

“I don’t know, Dwalin,” Bofur answered him wearily. He didn’t want to add to his friend’s pain, but he had been directed by him to be honest and this conversation hadn’t been ended by Dwalin, as of yet. “I know that Kili was sliding downhill quite fast when I got to him and Fili. I don’t think he had time to feel anything but the different kinds of pain from the wound and from his Uncle’s abandonment.” He twisted the leather hat he usually wore in his hands for a moment before he began talking again. “I could see the Fili was angry and I know he felt betrayed by the abandonment of his Uncle to both him and Kili. Yes, it was Fili’s choice to stay, but you and I know that wasn’t really a choice. There is no Kili without Fili and no Fili without Kili. It’s always been like that. Fili would no more leave his brother wounded and alone in a strange town full of men we couldn’t trust than Kili would have left him.”

“What happened after we left Lake Town?”

“Dwalin…”

“I need to know, Bofur. I can see it in your eyes that it still weighs on you. I saw it there when the four of you arrived.” He turned to him fully, blocking the entrance of Thorin’s medical tent. “Talk to me, old friend. There is nothing that we can do for Thorin right now and we both know that he would want the Company to know the details to make atonements to the princes for him if he continues onto the halls without them.”

Bofur sighed, looking towards the tent where the brothers were lying unconscious, then to his feet and then finally back to Dwalin.

“It was pretty bad as soon as I reached them, Dwalin. Kili’s skin was even more gray than it had been the night before. When I took his other side from Fili and helped to carry him, he was burning up. I don’t know how his skin could have been so hot outside of a forge fire. We tried carrying him to the Master’s house, first, but he turned us away saying that we dwarves had already been given enough. A few more people also turned us away. By the time we returned to Bard’s house… Kili was losing his fight.” He took a deep breath, pain crossing his face as he remembered that day. “He was dying, my friend, and there seemed to be nothing that Oin, Fili, I or Sigrid could do. We all did our best to try to make him comfortable, but he was in so much pain and he was dying right in front of us. The grayer he became, the paler Fili became. I knew that if Kili died there, then Fili would not be far behind him.”

“Mahal. We didn’t know… I didn’t realize…”

“You couldn’t have known.”

“I should have, Bofur. Don’t make excuses for me. I’m supposed to notice everything happening around my people.”

“I was trying to find Kingsfoil for Oin to use on Kili’s wound when the orcs attacked.”

“Orcs?”

“Yes. They attacked us at Bard’s house. We fought and did what we could to protect his children -- even Kili attacked them in an attempt to help us.”

“ _Mahal’s beard!_ But he was in no shape to --”

“I think he was aware he was going to die and wanted to die as a warrior should and not a slow death on a pallet like was happening to him. Our little, cheerful Kili was so serious as he tried to fight -- like he knew he was out of time and was trying to help the rest of us on his way out of this life.”

“Die on his feet instead of live on his knees,” Dwalin murmured. 

“Yeah. It certainly seemed that way. I could see it in his face as he struggled to fight. He knew he was doomed and fighting for Fili -- for all of us, really -- was stealing his life even quicker than it had been doing before.” Bofur shook his head, his eyes going distant for a long moment before he shook himself and focused on the present again. “Kili was on the floor and still trying to fight. None of us could get to him because we were busy fighting. I saw one of the orcs get ready to stab him and that was when the two elves burst in through the door.”

“Two of them?”

“Yes. The elf-woman, Tauriel, and the Prince… Legolas I think she called him. They made quick work of the surviving orcs and were about to leave when Tauriel saw Kili and realized how close he was to dying.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why she did it, but she refused to go with Legolas who went after the fleeing orcs. Instead she directed us to get Kili onto the table so she could examine his wound. I’m not sure by that time that Kili was even aware of what was happening around him. He was in so much pain that when she barely touched him to examine his leg, he was screaming. I’ve never heard the lad scream like that, Dwalin. I know Fili hadn’t either. Tauriel told us that his muscles in his leg had separated from the bone -- and she was right. I was holding a light for her and I saw the inside of the wound. I’ve never seen anything like that and I couldn’t understand how Kili was able to stay awake -- much less move at all.”

“How did we not lose him?”

“Tauriel saved him.”

“The elf?”

“The elf.”

“I don’t know which of us asked, it might have been Fili, but we asked her to try to help Kili and she took control of the situation. It was like nothing I had ever seen. She used her own magic and a glowing light surrounded her as she started chanting in her language and keeping her hands pressed on Kili’s leg. I watched the blackness start to fade and the gray of his skin become a pallor that was more normal on one who was sick. It was like she was infusing him with her own life.”

Dwalin felt like the entire mountain was suddenly resting on his shoulders. He truly hadn’t realized that Kili had been so bad off. When had the mountain become so much more important than the lives and well-being of loyal kin? He ran a hand over his face. They should have realized when Thorin told Fili that he wouldn’t risk the quest even for the lives of his kin that something was already very wrong with him. Never in the past would Thorin have left his wounded nephew in a town where anything could have happened to him. In the past, he would have stayed _with_ his nephews and done everything he could to help them and to take care of the wounded.

“The brothers have every right to be so angry with us, Bofur. We failed them and then when they finally reached the mountain… they were forced into battle when Kili probably shouldn’t have been on that battlefield at all.”

“You couldn’t have stopped him, Dwalin. Not when Fili was going to be following Thorin out there.”

“We should have done more for them. We should have tried harder. Lady Sigrid is correct in the anger she has for all of us.”

“She’s not angry at all of us.”

Dwalin managed a small smile. “No, she seems to like you and Oin well enough. It is the rest of the Company that she has rage for and she is right to feel so. We let all of you down.”

“You never --”

“Bofur. We should have looked for you when you didn’t show up at the boat. You could have been injured by someone instead of passed out drunk from the revelry and none of us thought to look for you.”

“There’s enough guilt and sadness to be had, Dwalin. Don’t take on more of a burden when it is not one that you need to have.”

“We should have known. I should have realized that something was already going wrong in Thorin’s mind when he was so willing to leave all of you behind. I know that Oin and Fili chose to stay with Kili and you were out, but we never should have left without out the rest of you. You are Company and family. Before we got to this wretched place, Thorin would never have left anyone behind. The quest for the mountain and the gold would have not been more important to him than the lives of the rest of us.”

“He is going to have a lot that he has to face when he wakes up again,” Bofur said after a long moment of silence. “If he is truly cured of the dragon sickness and the gold sickness, he is going to have a heavy load of emotions and guilt on his person.”

“It will be a shared burden. He has always been my King, but he was also always my friend and I would not allow him to face any of his trials alone.”

“He won’t be alone and neither will you, Dwalin.”

“We need to tell the rest of the company and Bilbo…” Dwalin frowned and looked at Bofur as shock rushed through him. “Bilbo. Bofur, have you seen Bilbo? He was with Thorin when we found him, but I haven’t seen him since we gathered Thorin up to bring him here!”

“No, I… we have to find him, Dwalin! We have to find Bilbo before someone who doesn’t know what truly happened on those ramparts hurts him! I will not allow anyone to harm our burglar!” Bofur’s eyes widened as he realized that there were so many dwarves who didn’t know that Bilbo wasn’t a traitor and had only acted as he did in an attempt to save Thorin.

Dwalin stepped away from the tent and grabbed the first dwarf he saw. “Find Dain and bring him here.”

“Master Dwalin --”

“There is no time! One of our own is missing and I need Dain here so we can get his help to find him.” 

When the dwarf seemed frightened enough to run off at Dwalin’s bidding, Bofur nodded and called on other dwarves to find the rest of the Company and bring them to the two healing tents. Neither of them wanted to think of the possibility that Bilbo had perished in the small pockets of fighting that had still been going on after Thorin had been retrieved from the battlefield.


End file.
